NFL concussion policy won't help Trent Green

September 24, 3:28 PMSports ExaminerPaula Duffy

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The news that Trent Green will replace Marc Bulger this weekend as the Rams starting quarterback has sparked controversy on sports talk radio today. Former Rams running back Marshall Faulk told Colin Cowherd that he didn't want to see Green take the field.

Faulk pointed out that Bulger got knocked around and sacked a lot behind that O-line of the Rams and Faulk fears for Green's health if he suffers a blow to the helmet.

Green is a survivor of two concussions in one calendar year, one of which was the most severe on the injury scale for head trauma. But he is on the active roster of the team and is being paid to play football. He had every opportunity to hang it up but chose not to and the NFL policy related to concussions doesn't help him.

If doctors clear him for takeoff and aren't pressured into doing so, Green has to play or be cut. The polcy gives anyone on the team the right to be a tattle tale if he/she has information that indicates the doctors' arms are being twisted to give a player the go signal.

Faulk wishes that no team would allow Green to take the field. He's barking up the wrong tree. He should talk to his friend about why he is still in uniform. He and his family made a decision that just might not be what the rest of us want to see but it's his decision. That's where the NFL policy doesn't go far enough. If it did, the team could make a decision based on medical information about the likelihood of further injury and the potential severity of it. As it stands now, doctors are only able to keep a player off the field if he is still feeling the effects of a head injury.

Do any of us want to witness a man being laid out, unconscious on the turf with the possibility that he won't ever be right again? No, but as Troy Vincent said at one point, you will never get a player to tell you he can't go back into a game.

 For the fantasy sports implications read Fantasy Football Examiner Brad Hostetter.